Is The New Vegas Good For Guys?

Credit for the city's explosion as a luxury gambling destination can be parceled out to an eclectic cast of characters, but the story of two men with different pedigrees and similar interests — gambling and making money — is most persuasive. Billy Wilkerson was the founder of the first Hollywood trade publication, the Hollywood Reporter, owner of several nightclubs on L.A.'s Sunset Strip, and a gambling addict. Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was a mobster trying to go legit at a time when Wilkerson needed scratch. The combination of Wilkerson's vision and Siegel's muscle (he ultimately drove Wilkerson out of the business and threatened to kill him) created the $6-million Flamingo, which officially opened on December of 1946 and was the first luxury casino on the Strip, after which development throughout the 1950s would be modeled.

Early entertainment in Las Vegas was high-minded. Men dressed in formal attire would come to the city with their wives to see A-list acts like Jimmy Durante, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. brought in from Hollywood. The essential night out included dinner, a show and some gambling and boozing at the Sands or the Tropicana — a few of the handful of casinos open at the time — all of which, except the gambling, would typically be comped by the casino.

Dinner, show, gamble

“Back then, it was all about 'get them to gamble and the rest will be free,'” says Paul Draper, a Las Vegas-based cultural anthropologist and former teacher at UNLV (and former colleague of the late Hal Rothman, considered Vegas's leading historian). As the quintessential Rat Pack film Ocean's 11 made clear, Las Vegas in its original form was a city where riches, intrigue and the chance to win big were all part of the allure. It was a hustler's town, a city built by men for their own rakish enjoyment. For the average guy, rubbing shoulders with celebrities and being comped like one of them was worth the cost of gambling at the tables.

The same basic formula for Vegas nightlife remained consistent through the 1980s. The acts changed over time — solo celebrity shows gave way to variety shows with many entertainers, variety shows went topless with showgirls, and showgirls turned into magic acts, but the entertainment was always preceded by dinner on the casino property or a steakhouse like the Golden Steer, then followed by gambling and drinking.

“Most entertainment was name entertainment,” says George Maloof Jr., owner of the Palms Casino Resort. “It was burlesque shows, big productions, Dean Martin and Sinatra (even in the 80s), Don Rickles — that was what people wanted. Dinner, show, gamble.” The fundamental draw for guys coming to Vegas from cities like Chicago or San Francisco or Boise was that they got a taste of life as a freewheeling high-roller before going back to regular lives when the weekend was through.

The metamorphosis

A hypothesis: There is an inverse relationship between how cool a casino game is and the amount of revenue it brings in.

Proof: In fiscal 2009, the average revenue breakdown for the 23 big Strip casinos went like this: Slots (53%, up 5% from 1999), table games (43%), poker/pan (2%), race book and sports book (each 1%). A hefty chunk of that table-games percentage comes from high-stakes baccarat, a game favored by Asian high-rollers (known as "whales") which is often played in private rooms. This is, therefore, probably an outlier with respect to overall gaming trends.